Chad Copley Case: Shooting, Trial, and Appeals Rulings

The Chad Copley case is the prosecution of a Raleigh, North Carolina homeowner who fatally shot 20-year-old Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas through a closed garage window on August 6, 2016, was convicted of first-degree murder in February 2018, and — after appeals that reached the North Carolina Supreme Court twice — had his life sentence without parole definitively upheld in May 2024.¹

The Shooting on Singleleaf Lane

Around midnight on August 6, 2016, a party of roughly 50 people was underway at a home on Singleleaf Lane in the Neuse Crossing neighborhood of northeast Raleigh, hosted by Jalen Lewis two doors from Chad Copley’s house. Guests parked along the street, including in front of Copley’s property. A group of about 20 uninvited guests who had been asked to leave the party gathered on the curb near Copley’s yard. Copley, awakened by the noise, shouted from an upstairs window for the group to quiet down. Members of the group responded with profanity and, according to Copley’s later testimony, told him to “go inside, white boy.”²

Kouren Thomas was not part of that curbside group. He was inside the Lewis house. When Thomas and two friends decided to leave — spooked by flashing lights from a nearby traffic stop that they mistook for police responding to the party — they walked toward their car. Thomas cut across the edge of Copley’s front yard as he ran to the vehicle. By that point, Copley had moved downstairs to his garage with a shotgun. He fired a single blast through a closed garage window. The shot struck Thomas near Copley’s mailbox. Thomas was taken to WakeMed Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.² No weapon was found on Thomas or anywhere at the scene.³

The 911 Calls

Before firing, Copley called 911 and reported “a bunch of hoodlums out here racing” on his street. He told the dispatcher he was “on neighborhood watch” and declared, “I am locked and loaded. I’m going outside to secure my neighborhood.” He described the people outside as having firearms and said, “There’s some devil in them.”⁴ On the recording, before the dispatcher answered, Copley was heard saying, “I’m going to kill him.” At trial he claimed “him” referred to his son, whom he believed was at the party.²

In a second call minutes later, Copley reported the shooting, saying he had fired “a warning shot” after the people outside were “showing firearms.” He told the dispatcher, “There’s friggin’ black males outside my friggin’ house with firearms. Please, send PD.”⁴ Raleigh police confirmed they had received no earlier calls about the party or disturbances on the block. Neighbor Elizabeth Prochaska testified that Neuse Crossing had no organized neighborhood watch and that no one had been asked to “secure the neighborhood” that night.⁵

The Trial and Verdict

Copley was indicted by a Wake County grand jury on first-degree murder. His trial began on February 12, 2018, before Superior Court Judge Michael J. O’Foghludha.⁶

Wake County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Latour argued that Copley was the aggressor. He armed himself, stationed himself in a darkened garage, and fired through a closed window without warning at a person who posed no threat. Prosecutors played the 911 recordings, in which Copley announced he was “locked and loaded” and was heard saying “I’m going to kill him.” Multiple witnesses, including the party’s host and several guests, testified that they saw no firearms among the partygoers, and a Wake County sheriff’s deputy confirmed the only firearm recovered at the scene was Copley’s shotgun. Copley admitted at trial that he had lied to police nearly a dozen times about the events of that night, including fabricating claims that people were racing cars and vandalizing his property.⁷

Copley testified in his own defense, invoking both self-defense and defense of habitation under North Carolina’s castle doctrine (N.C.G.S. § 14-51.2). He said he feared for his wife and two young daughters, who were asleep upstairs. He testified that three men had firearms and that one pointed a weapon toward his garage window. “They actually lifted their shirts up, flashing the firearms,” Copley told the jury. “I kept telling them to leave and he reached for his gun and I shot him.”⁸ Prosecutors pointed out that this account contradicted what Copley had told police and the dispatcher, where he described only a “warning shot” and never mentioned anyone brandishing a weapon.⁹

On February 22, 2018, after less than two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on two theories of first-degree murder: premeditation and deliberation, and lying in wait.⁸ The next day, Judge O’Foghludha sentenced Copley to life in prison without the possibility of parole.¹⁰

The Race Question at the Heart of the Case

Copley is white; Thomas was Black. The shooting drew national attention and comparisons to the 2012 Trayvon Martin case. Attorney Justin Bamberg, representing the Thomas family, called Copley “George Zimmerman 2.0,” while noting a difference: unlike Zimmerman, Copley “never left his house, never left his position of safety, never was in reasonable danger.”¹¹

Race then became the pivot of the appellate fight. During closing arguments, prosecutor Latour told the jury: “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. … Ask yourself if Kourey Thomas and these people outside were a bunch of young, white males wearing N.C. State hats, is he laying dead bleeding in that yard?”¹² The defense objected. Judge O’Foghludha overruled the objection. That ruling launched years of appeals.

The Appeals

Court of Appeals Vacates the Conviction (2019)

On May 7, 2019, the North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated Copley’s conviction in a 2-1 decision and ordered a new trial. Writing for the majority, Judge John Tyson called Latour’s remarks a “wholly gratuitous injection of race into the trial” and held that the trial court had abused its discretion in overruling the defense objection. No evidence, the opinion said, supported the assertion that Copley “feared or bore racial hatred towards the individuals outside of his home because they were black.”¹³ Judge Donna Stroud concurred. Judge John Arrowood dissented, calling the remarks a brief, non-derogatory acknowledgment of potential racial bias — evidence at trial had included Copley’s own testimony that the group called him “white boy.”¹² The dissent gave the state an automatic right of appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Reinstates the Conviction (2020)

On April 3, 2020, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated Copley’s conviction. The court assumed without deciding that Latour’s race-related remarks were improper, but held that Copley failed to show prejudice — that is, a “reasonable possibility that the jury would have acquitted him had the challenged argument not been permitted.” The evidence of guilt, including Copley’s own statements and admissions, was “compelling,” and the disputed remarks were a small portion of the total closing argument. Justice Hudson wrote separately to say the remarks were not improper at all, calling them “non-derogatory” and relevant to whether Copley held a reasonable fear as part of his self-defense claim.¹⁴ The case went back to the Court of Appeals to address Copley’s remaining arguments about jury instructions and other trial issues.

Supreme Court Affirms the Conviction (2024)

On May 23, 2024, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Copley’s remaining challenges in a decision by Justice Anita Earls. The court addressed three issues and rejected them all, though it found one instruction error along the way.¹⁵

First, there was no gross impropriety in the prosecutor’s use of the word “aggressive” during closing arguments. The prosecutor was characterizing specific actions rather than formally invoking the legal aggressor doctrine, and the argument did not misstate the law on defense of habitation or impose a duty to retreat.

Second, the court rejected Copley’s challenge to the jury instructions on the aggressor doctrine, finding it was “invited error” because Copley’s own trial attorney had explicitly requested the very language he later attacked on appeal.

Third, the court agreed with Copley that the trial court’s instruction on first-degree murder by lying in wait was legally flawed. The instruction suggested the castle doctrine could coexist with a conviction for lying in wait; the Supreme Court clarified that the castle doctrine “disclaims the elements of lying in wait and displaces that offense” when it applies. But the error caused no prejudice, because the jury had simultaneously convicted Copley of first-degree murder by premeditation and deliberation. In returning that verdict, the jury had necessarily rejected the castle doctrine defense regardless of the flawed lying-in-wait instruction.¹⁶

Where the Case Stands

With the May 2024 decision affirming his conviction for first-degree murder by premeditation and deliberation, Chad Copley’s life sentence without parole stands. He remains incarcerated.¹

1
Carolina Journal. State Supreme Court Rejects New Murder Trial for Wake Homeowner
2
Findlaw. State v. Copley
3
CNN. Raleigh, North Carolina Man Shoots African-American Outside Home
4
The Washington Post. A White Homeowner Called 911 to Report Hoodlums Outside. Then He Fatally Shot a Black Man
5
WRAL. Copley Murder Trial Testimony
6
WCTI12. Life Sentence for Man Who Shot Unarmed Black Man
7
CBS News. Hoodlums 911 Caller Takes Stand at His Murder Trial
8
ABC11. Jury Finds Raleigh Homeowner Guilty in Killing of 20-Year-Old
9
Spectrum News. Testimony Wraps in Copley Murder Trial
10
ABC11. Raleigh Man Gets Life in Prison Without Parole for Killing 20-Year-Old
11
CBS News. Lawyer: Black Man’s Accused Shooter Is George Zimmerman 2.0
12
The News & Observer. Court of Appeals Overturns Copley Conviction
13
ABC11. Mom Reacts After Murder Conviction Overturned
14
Findlaw. State v. Copley, No. 195A19
15
Findlaw. State v. Copley, No. 195A19-2
16
Justia. State v. Copley, No. 195A19-2